California & Hawaiian Sugar Co. v. EPA

The court upholds the validity of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) final effluent limitations guidelines for crystalline cane sugar refineries after rejecting petitioners' claims that various agency determinations were arbitrary and capricious in light of all the evidence in the record. The agency properly fixed precise limitations rather than permissible ranges on the discharge of pollutants, since it based the limitations on an analysis of the factors prescribed in the Act and allowed adjustments for plants with "fundamentally different" attributes. EPA also properly determined, for the purpose of defining what constitutes "best practicable technology" and "best available technology," that techniques currently employed by other industries could be transferred to sugar refining plants. The court concludes in addition that EPA gave adequate consideration to potential non-water quality environmental effects such as sludge disposal and to the cost of the recommended treatment technologies. Moreover, EPA need not document specifically the benefits to society from curtailment of pollutants from a particular point source. The petition for review is denied.